Why the Dell XT is not for me

I have been intrigued by the Dell XT Tablet PC like many of you since the first leaked information began appearing on the web so long ago.  I railed along with many about the high price that Dell was placing on the new capacitive touch capability but even so I have been eagerly awaiting hearing how users find the innovative Tablet PC.  It was with great interest I heard that Rob Bushway of GottaBeMobile had ordered one as I knew that soon we would begin hearing and seeing the Dell XT second-hand to see what all the fuss has been about.  Rob received his Dell recently and I have been following his unboxing video and subsequent impressions with great relish.  Having seen Rob's initial postings about the Dell, I can state pretty emphatically that it's not for me.  I've given this a lot of thought and I'll share those thoughts with you here.

I have been using Tablet PCs so long that my main criteria for them has become "thin and light".  I use Tablets in my hands all day taking notes so the two most important factors in whether a given device will work well for me are the thickness (or lack thereof) of the device in slate mode and just as importantly how heavy it is.  I thought the Dell XT would be one of the thinnest and lightest of the Tablets based on the early information but having seen it in Rob's video I am pretty sure it is not.  The XT looks much thicker than my favorite 12-inch Tablet PC, the HP 2710p, and it also looks a fair bit heavier to me.  Rob's initial comparison of the Dell with the HP confirms what I gathered from the video and he finds the Dell thicker and heavier than the HP.  Now the HP 2710p is right on my upper limit for weight for a device I use in my hands all day so I'm pretty sure that I would not like the Dell for that reason.  It also looks too thick for me to handle for long durations at a stretch and that's a deal breaker for me too.  So I'm pretty sure the Dell is not for me, especially given the high price of it.

All of this thinking about the Dell along with some other things I am doing currently has caused me to rethink my long-standing requirements for mobile devices.  I have always thought that size and weight were the two most important factors in determining if a mobile device would work for me or not and I now believe that's not necessarily true.  I am evaluating a new device right now that I can't talk about due to an embargo but it is roughly the same size as the Fujitsu P1620 I am using right now.  It is a bit heavier than the Fujitsu, one of the lightest Tablet PCs you can find, but I am finding that makes no difference when I use it.  The secret device is not a Tablet PC, it's a small notebook PC and since it's not used in the hands like the Fujitsu the extra weight, small that it is, makes no difference whatsoever.  The device is still small enough to be extremely portable and the extra weight makes no difference, in fact it's due to the solid construction of the device making it more durable for portable use.  So it's opened my eyes a lot about how important weight is to mobile PCs in general.  I find that unless a device is a Tablet PC the weight is much less of a factor than I previously thought.  That may only be common sense to most of you but it's shaken my firm beliefs in this area.

Comments

[Nate]

HP 2133?

[James Kendrick]

"under embargo"

[nomo]

Tomorrow is April 4...

[Stu Kim]

With regard to the weight of notebooks, perhaps there is a threshold as to what is acceptable. I remember my first notebook - an Apple Powerbook 190CS that weighed 6.2 pounds! I lugged that thing from campus to my summer internship near the State Capital in Madison, WI, and I finally had enough. I bought a Thinkpad 560 that weighed 4.2 pounds, and I thought I found nirvana. I still remember how many of my classmates were envious because it was "so light". It was a different time back then. :-) Sooooo, perhaps a laptop computer in the 3 to 4 pound range isn't too awful.

[Mike Cane]

What's April 4th got to do with anything?!

Bah! Kendrick the Fiend probably has the new HTC Advantage Plus Plus Plus. 8" screen. WinMob 6.1 (with whatever lipstick HTC put on that pig).

In portable devices, isn't the hard drive usually the one item that weighs the most? Hmmm... I'd like to see a weight comparison between an HD and SSD of equal capacity.

[Nate]

I know JK. Just throwing out a guess. I wasn't fishing for an answer.

[Nate]

@Mike

I would think the batter would, usually, account for most of the weight.

[Rob]

thanks for the post, James.

One comment on the thickness and weight. I've got the DLV version ( with outdoor screen, 400 nits ). The DLV version is thicker and heavier than the 2710p for sure.

The LED version, though, is slightly thinner and slightly lighter than the 2710p. Here the specs passed along by one of my readers, Antimatter:

XT LED ( no DLV ): 3.5 lbs, 1.0 inches
XT w/ DLV: 4.2 lbs, 1.2 inches
2710p : 3.7 lbs, 1.1 inches

[Rob]

by the way, I'm still pretty impressed with the Dell ( they did a bang up job on it 0, but I didn't realize that the DLV added as much as .5 lbs to the weight, and .2 inches to the thickness.

Nothing I've held yet compares to the 2710p - the most slate like convertible I've used to date.

[Mike Cane]

>>>I would think the batter would, usually, account for most of the weight.

That confused the fek out of me until I cottoned to the missing Y.

That can't be right. LiOn batteries are light. I think you've just revealed to all of us you're still using something that runs on NiCads!!

[James Kendrick]

Rob, thanks for chiming in. I'm amazed that the DLV screen adds .7 pounds to the weight and .2 inches to the overall thickness. That's silly for just a screen. I too agree that the 2710p is the best convertible I have used and the purpose of this post.

Mike, batteries can weigh as much as a pound so they are a big factor in 3 pound devices.

[Jake]

Definitely an HP 2133 this time :)

I've got to agree that I thought the same thing about the XT when I saw Rob's unboxing yesterday. It looks far to thick and heavy for me to use as an everyday laptop let alone a tablet.

[James Kendrick]

Another Dell deal-breaker for me was seeing how thick that slice battery is. It is easily 2-3 times thicker than the slice battery on the 2710p and the weight of it must be correspondingly heavier too. That would make for one honking big beast with the slice battery attached.

[Nate]

@Mike

Ya, I saw that immediately after I posted. I figured you were sharp enough to catch is.

I still think the battery is the heaviest component in most of these devices. Just take the battery off of your notebook, and see how much lighter it is.

Displays can be relatively heavy as well.

[Mike Cane]

>>>Mike, batteries can weigh as much as a pound so they are a big factor in 3 pound devices.

Bah. Blame J&R for warping my sense of weight then! They *never* have the batteries installed in units. Everything is running off AC, so when you test lift things, they are featherweight.

You can tell the heaviest thing I've toted around is a LifeDrive. Ha!

And, yeah too, I guess I've been thinking of olllld-style portable HDs. I know wee things like CloudBook-sized units have wee HDs now.

[2133]

are you allowed to say when the NDA is lifted? doesnt really seem like that could reveal what the device is (even though we ALL already know, HP let alot leak about the device on purpose).

i'm very curious to see the final size, weight, battery life, & how well it performs with Vista SP1 (luckily no Aero).

[Canuck]

I'm an XT user, and it is really a marvel. It was hard for me to choose between it and the 2710P, but in the end the touch screen is a dream compared to the traditional touch screen and unlike the 2710P, it has buttons on the screen which come in handy. If you don't get the outdoor screen it is thinner than the 2710P

BUT BACK ON TOPIC, I bought it because weak performance on my Samsung Q1B frustrated me into a full size machine (which ironically I bought after my Dell x50 drove me off of pocketpc). I LOVE the XT, but stand around for more than 10 minutes writing on it, and all of a sudden I have trouble remembering what I didn't like about my little 1.5 lb UMPC.

There is no doubt in my mind about the choice I made in full screen tablet pc (why buy yesterday's technology when you can buy tomorrow's?) BUT, when it comes to Mobility defined by physically carrying the device around all day, I think James's new fuji 1620 is the first to recognize some kind of intelligent compromise.

[HG]

Hey James so how you like the boot up time on the HP 2133 compared to the P1620? I like that it has a Express Slot; you can use your Verizon card with it. I personally like Tablets for U810. I still have my Samsung Q1P that I was using before. I do use my SR Macbook Pro with Vista Ultimate as my desktop replacement.